The Bond
by Hikari M666
Summary: Some mystery prankster has caused Lily and James to switch bodies - immediately after they've broken up. So not only do they have to figure out the most sensible way around this awkward body-swap, but they also have to endure the pain of being exes. A Marauder-era Lily/James!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: **Hi! Since this is my first time posting in the HP fandom in... seven years, and back then I hadn't really written fanfiction before, I feel kind of nervous! I feel like it's inherently different from the other fandoms I write for, like the audience will be completely different. Wow, I hope I fit in!

So this isn't the most original of premises. Body-switch stories are done on a daily basis, but I really hope I'm doing this in a way that others haven't. More than that, I hope people enjoy my way! I started writing this a few years ago now, in a time where I had a bizarre fascination with break-ups and colour blindness.

And as a general note about how this story goes: it's not going to be a long angst-fest about how Lily's and James's relationship deteriorates as they break up. Not really. Because duh, I don't want them broken up! Unfortunately, it had to happen for the rest of the story to happen, but you already know they've got to have a happy ending! I like a little bit of angst, but I can't handle angsty endings.

**Oh, and one question!** If you want to say that something belongs to James, do you say _James' _or _James's_? It's such a huge issue when writing Marauders fics! In my draft I used the former, in this final copy I've used the latter, but I'd rather use whichever you prefer. I don't have much loyalty to one over the other, though I do lean towards _James's_. I find it clearer.

Speaking of clarity... this site keeps messing with my formatting! I'm so sorry if it looks unintelligible, I'm trying my best to work out all the problems!

And now I'm talking too much. Please read and enjoy!

* * *

**The Bond**

It was on a cool April afternoon in the library that James Potter was about to experience heartbreak. Lily Evans was about to dump him.

None of his friends would find it altogether shocking; they had still been getting used to the fact that Evans had agreed to go out with James in the first place. That she was reneging barely six months later would come as no surprise to anyone except James himself.

He was still convinced everything was fine upon walking into the library after lunch that day, upon seeing his girlfriend's pensive face - even upon hearing her say the words, "We need to talk."

James had spent the last six months in a blissfully ignorant paradise, and was in for an unpleasant dose of reality.

As soon as the leering librarian was out of earshot, Lily said in a low voice, "James, this is really serious. I think we need to break up."

The words hung in the air for a moment, and even James was perceptive enough to realise that Lily was not joking.

"Could . . . could you repeat that?" he asked faintly.

"I've really loved the past six months, but it's just not exactly working, and I think we should end it," Lily said, a firm edge in her tone. "There's just something not there that should be."

James needed to blink a few times, slowly. He felt his stomach begin to plummet, the colour drain from his face, and it took him a long while to be able to respond.

"I - I don't think I quite understand." He tried and failed to swallow his stammer.

"I'm sorry."

_She couldn't mean it, she couldn't mean it, she couldn't mean it . . ._

"It was fun, I know - well, more than _fun_- but surely you could sense it had to end."

She was starting to feel awkward, James realised hollowly. He could always tell when she was starting to feel awkward after watching her interact with Professor Slughorn so many times. But she had never been awkward around him, James, before. It just added to the blow.

"Besides, we have our NEWTs to think about. We really need all our energy on this one thing, and we really won't have time for one another."

He had heard of other couples breaking up for that reason, but he knew it was just an excuse. He would have considered Lily his top priority all year, even if his exams started the very next day.

"James, say something," Lily urged.

James forced down the lump in his throat. "Is this - is that it? That's it, that's everything? Just like that?"

"Just like that," Lily agreed sadly. James's eyes were downcast throughout this, but he could see Lily's almost-regretful expression clearly in his mind. However he knew that she was not regretting her actions, only that they were hurting him.

"It can't be that simple," he said weakly, but he knew his battle was lost. He raised his head so that their eyes met. "Six months . . . "

"Merlin, James, don't make this harder than it already is!" Lily burst out, looking miserable. Her volume earned her an audible, "_Sssh!_" from the next aisle, so she lowered her voice. "I knew this wasn't going to be easy and you wouldn't understand right away, but this has to be done. We can't be together any more."

James retreated back into silence.

_James Potter, you have officially failed at life. You had Lily, and you screwed it up._

His mind was in a blur. This just wasn't possible. This wasn't just some stupid teenage fling; he _loved _Lily. He actually loved her and couldn't conceive how his life was meant to function for the first time in so many months without her. It didn't work, it didn't click, this wasn't supposed to happen!

"This can't be real." He wasn't even trying to control the shaking in his voice now. "This can't happen. Please, Lily, whatever it is, I'm so sorry and I'll fix it straight away."

"James . . . " Lily took a pained step back, turning to leave, but James refused to let it happen. He rushed towards her and wrapped his arms tightly, pleadingly, around her shoulders.

"No, please, please, no," he begged, his eyes actually becoming wet with tears. "I'll do anything, please, anything . . . "

"James!" Lily cried. She pushed him away from her. "This isn't something that can just be _fixed!_" A single tear made a trail down her cheek, barely missing her mouth. "I have to do this. I'm sorry I've hurt you, but it's over."

_It's over. _James slowly closed his mouth, realising he had nothing of any value to counter that damning statement. He gazed at Lily helplessly, relishing her ever-present beauty, longing to hold her face in his hands as he kissed her. Now he could never do that again.

"It's really over," he whispered mournfully. The truth set on him like a black shroud when uttered in his own voice. He sank down to the floor and closed his eyes to stop the now steady flow of tears.

When he opened them, everything had changed.

* * *

Something had definitely changed, and in a big way. It was almost overwhelming James to try to take in everything at once, and he was scared that while closing his eyes he had somehow damaged them.

Colour.

James wasn't colourblind before, but the blast of new colours he now saw burned themselves into his visual index with terrifying intensity. The carpet - red, bright red, a richness he didn't know existed. The bookshelves - until now, he had never been quite sure what 'mahogany' really was. And the books themselves! Every colour imaginable, even several he couldn't identify.

The impact was so great that James almost fell off-balance - then he remembered, hadn't he been sitting down despairingly a moment before?

Then everything else hit him at once.

Standing.

No glasses.

Shorter.

Clothing different.

Tighter.

Lighter.

Long hair.

And the mirror image of himself kneeling on the floor some paces in front of him.

The shock to his system was enormous: his heart raced, his hands shook and his breath was coming out in gasps, in what he _knew _was not the sound his own throat made. He knew without doubt what had just happened, but he could barely bring himself to believe it.

He breathed, just breathed, focusing on the figure at his feet. The figure was staring silently, mouth open, at the floor, before extending this view to their surroundings. The figure's gaze finally found James, and stared long and hard.

"James," the person said softly, in his voice, "I think we need to have another serious talk."

James nodded, with what he knew was Lily's head. "Agreed."

* * *

Lily slapped herself on the cheek, so hard that the glasses flew off her - _her? _- face.

"What are you doing?" James asked.

"Making sure I can't just snap out of this, like a bad dream. Oh, Merlin, this is ridiculous . . . "

"Well, don't slap it too hard," James said sullenly. "I don't want to bruise."

They had relocated to an empty classroom where it was certain no one would bother them. If at any point another student walked in, they would most certainly mumble an apology and hastily leave, thinking they had interrupted something much more private than conversation. No one knew yet about the recent break-up. Meanwhile they were addressing the dire issue at hand: how they had managed to switch bodies, and how they were going to switch back.

"No potions, no rituals, no incantations." Lily shook her head despairingly. "I give up, James. How did you do it?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I get it, payback, but this could have terrible consequences if you don't tell me how to reverse it."

"You think _I _did this?" James stood up, his voice rising even above Lily's usual pitch. "To get back at you for breaking up with me?"

"What else am I supposed to think?" Lily stood as well, habitually drawing herself up to attempt to match her opponent's height; it made her falter to discover that now, in James's body, she dwarfed James in hers.

"I ought to kick you where it hurts," James snarled. "_Payback? _You think that's the sort of person I am? No wonder you dumped me."

James had never seen himself flinch before, so it was quite a moment seeing Lily pull back as if she'd been hit. She bowed her head so low that if the glasses weren't already lying on the floor they would have fallen off.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" James snapped. "For blaming me, or for dumping me?"

He was lashing out, and he knew he'd regret it later. He fully expected Lily to come back with an equally spiteful remark, but perhaps just to add to his guilt, she did no such thing.

"It could always just reverse itself at some stage," she said quietly. "If it's a spell. Or the caster could get bored of the joke and reverse it."

James sobered quickly from his anger. He could at least try to be helpful. "It could be a variation of the Polyjuice Potion. They might have given it to us at dinner and made it have delayed effects."

Lily shook her head. "Unlikely. The Polyjuice Potion takes a long time to produce, and the transformations aren't instantaneous like ours were. Plus, a student experimenting with variations of already complex potions? That is serious, and seriously dangerous. Nobody would go that far for a joke. This is all too much just to see us embarrass ourselves. No; I think that who or whatever did this had some strong magic and a good motive backing them."

Lily stopped, looking at James, who had a strange smile coming over his face.

"Did I say something stupid?" she asked. James shook his head.

"I love you."

"Oh, James, please don't do this. We're not together any more," Lily groaned, shutting her eyes.

"I still do, though. And I can tell from the way you speak that it's you, not me, regardless of the whole body switch."

"Probably something to do with the fact that you're you, so it logically follows that I'm not you."

"It's more than that." And it was true. James knew Lily so well after the last six months that all her tiny mannerisms, from her almost-but-not-quite-sarcastic tone to her careful choice of words, became beacons of her personality shining through a deceiving exterior.

Lily sighed shamefully. "This couldn't have come at a worse time, could it? It makes the break-up more awkward than it already was."

"Still, better I have your body than someone who hadn't already seen it," James said, risking a little fun. Lily didn't appear to see the humour though.

"Oh, we're going for the cheap shots now, are we? Ha ha, you have breasts. I have a penis. Isn't this just _hilarious._" She said it flatly; definitely not a question.

"You're grumpy."

"And you're bipolar. Five seconds ago you were at my throat, and now you're saying you love me and making sex jokes."

"It's kind of a funny situation."

"I'll think of it that way in ten years' time when it's a very distant memory. For now I'm going to mourn the loss of my breasts and eyesight."

She reached down to pick up James' glasses, but James knew that they wouldn't give her the kind of sight she craved. Her eyes had the most amazing colour spectrum, and now she was forced to endure the flatter, fewer shades to which James was accustomed. It struck him that he would at some point have to go back to that semi-blindness, and for some reason the thought was cold. He'd never known before how differently two people could see the world.

"So we're just going to live with this?" he asked. Lily threw him an icy look.

"Of course not. You think I want to look like you for the rest of my life? We'll go to Dumbledore. He'll be able to get us out of this."

Her solution was met with silence, and she saw that James had produced a forlorn expression alien to her face. He was not keen to take this up with Dumbledore. He didn't know if it was humiliation, but something in him was urging him to keep this his and Lily's secret.

Lily glared with James' hazel eyes. "You have a _problem _with going to Dumbledore?"

Anyone else at Hogwarts would have winced and shaken their head vehemently. James looking furious had that effect. It was a shame, therefore, that James himself was the recipient of this glare and wasn't in the least scared of himself.

"How about we wait a while? I mean," he rushed, as Lily prepared to interject, "this thing might wear off of its own accord. We might just be needlessly embarrassing ourselves going to him."

"Forgive me for finding _this _more embarrassing than the prospect of telling Dumbledore!" Lily snapped.

"I'd rather tell as few people as possible, personally."

"What, you think Dumbledore will announce it to the school over dinner?"

"He's not the only one who would find out!"

Lily stopped. "What do you mean?"

James's train of thought had told him that admitting the body switch in Dumbledore's office would allow the portrait of Phinaeus Nigellus to hear, and that interfering old man would spill everything to Sirius's relatives. Regulus would tell Sirius and probably all the Slytherins as well, and the whole school would find out. He explained this all to Lily, who groaned.

"But surely whoever did this to us will tell everybody anyway. What's to stop everyone finding out?"

James shook his head. "You haven't learned a thing about pranking in the entire time we've been going out, have you?"

"I never considered it quite as worthwhile as my other goals. Wasted potential, I'm sure."

"Whoever did this will want to brag. But with a prank like this, no one will believe him unless it's really obvious we've switched. So if we were to act as if we really are each other . . . "

He waited for Lily's comprehension. She was running her fingers through her hair as though frustrated it was short. Eventually she said, "You just said no one will believe _him _if he tells. Why do you think it's a he?"

James arched an eyebrow. "You think it's a girl?"

"Well, your gang's pranks generally involve Slytherins growing multicoloured tentacles and singing about their underpants. Calling that the average male's maturity, I'd say this definitely has the subtlety of a female's work."

"Blimey, you _have _learned something." James was impressed, and not in the least insulted by Lily's jibe at the male intelligence.

"And if it was a girl," Lily continued, her voice as low as James's deep pitch would allow, "then this was probably meant as an attack on _me._"

"That's stupid," James protested. "Why would anyone - "

"Believe it or not, James, some people don't like me any more than you like the Slytherins."

There was silence. Then:

"James, I want to find out who did this."

They looked at one another, the fact that they were each staring into their own eyes making them feel strangely numb.

"We're not going to Dumbledore, then?" James asked.

"Not unless we absolutely have to," Lily responded grimly. "Not until I find out who and how."

Exhaling loudly, James tapped his fingers loudly on his knees. "To think I'll be spending very close time with these knees. These fingers too."

"Oh, shut up. I don't even want to know where your fingers have been. I think we need some ground rules."

James considered this. "No, I think we're good."

"Well, _I've _got one," Lily said, glaring. "No sexual advances on my body."

James raised his eyebrows. "You think I'm going to let a million guys have sex with you? My girlfriend?"

"_Ex._ Ex-girlfriend now. And you have to treat me as such. My body isn't open for inspection."

"Oh, I see. You meant no advances from me." He wasn't impressed by her deductions. As far as English teenagers went, he was one of the most respectable around, and he thought she knew that. Hell, he thought that was why she'd agreed to go out with him. The idea that his morals would be so loose as to try anything with her - not even her! With just her _body! _It seemed unthinkable that anybody at all would be so unscrupulous.

He felt deflated by her lack of trust. Still, he kept his expression firm as he answered, "You have nothing to worry about. I promise: no looks or touches that aren't purely functional."

Lily winced a bit, as if regretful that he had stated the 'functional' aspect out loud. She wasn't a prude, James knew, but she certainly believed very firmly that some things were reserved for absolute privacy.

"And," she said, perhaps a little louder than normal, "no deliberate humiliation, please."

James gritted his teeth, but kept his mouth shut. "Okay."

"I think that's all."

"Okay," James repeated. "So, what do we do?"

"Well, now's the fun part. We go and we be each other."

They sat in discontented silence for the better part of a minute, staring at the hands they would be living with for an indefinite amount of time. Time ticked on and it was dark outside by the time they were ready to trudge back to Gryffindor Tower. If it were any consolation, the Fat Lady noticed nothing out of order as they announced the password and climbed through the portrait hole. She simply scolded them for being out after hours.

Once inside, James paused. "You know, guys can't get into the girls' dormitory. If the staircase can tell who's who, I'm going to have to think up excuses for sleeping in the Common Room every night."

"Studying, crying, love letters," Lily said grimly. "They'll believe anything, trust me."

"You've told the girls in your dorm that you've stayed up all night writing love letters to me?" James grinned cheekily. He had no idea what it must have looked like on Lily's face.

"No: I've told them that I felt so trapped in our relationship that I stayed up all night writing love letters to _other _people."

She obviously intended it to be sarcastic, but mere hours after their break-up was not an opportune moment for sarcasm. James stopped dead in his tracks. All traces of his previous grin gone, he stared tensely into Lily's - his own - hazel eyes.

"Is that what this is about? You fancy someone else?"

"_What?"_

"Was he _worth_ throwing away a relationship?" he demanded.

"James!" Lily looked furious at the accusation. "Who do you think you are? Who do you think _I_ am? It is nothing like that and you know that perfectly well! Don't you dare say anything of the sort about me."

They stared daggers at each other for a second before the reality of glaring at themselves became too much to handle. James couldn't believe how quick to rise that anger had been. Was this what a real break-up was? Normalcy, slowly deteriorating into fighting, then eventually hatred? He didn't want that with Lily. He refused to accept that all their love would just die like all the other, common couples out there. They weren't common.

"I know," he said in a low voice. "That was stupid of me. I don't know what I was thinking."

Lily softened. "Right. Just try the stairs, okay?"

James approached the staircase to the girls' dormitory with trepidation, but when he gingerly touched the bottom step with his toe, nothing happened. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wish me luck."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **This is possibly the fastest I've ever spewed out a second chapter. Sadly, it's because I already had most of it written and I only needed to add a couple of hundred words. After this, it'll be back to insanely slow updates. Going back to uni does that.

Anyway, this chapter is less 'look at all the awkward stuff I have to do', and more 'my body and brain are actually confused now'. Because as if they wouldn't be. It's not like their brains actually switched bodies, just their consciousness, and I'm sure every part of them would get messed up as a result.

* * *

**Mind Over Matter**

The boys' dormitory was much the same as it had been every other time Lily had gone in there over the last six months: messier than the girls', though not explosively so; small, snuffling snores were coming from the bed closest to the window; and the curtains around Remus's had been ripped off during some misadventure eight weeks ago, leaving his sleeping form in plain view.

"Prongs?" a groggy voice said from the nearest four-poster. " . . . the hell have you been? I thought we were going through that essay tonight."

Lily groaned internally; she had hoped to sneak in quietly, without waking anyone, then get up first the next morning. "Sorry, Sirius," she muttered. "I forgot. We'll do it tomorrow, okay?"

"I did mine tonight anyway . . . You all right? You sound weird."

"I'm fine," she answered. Sirius mumbled something inaudible and trailed off.

One awkward trip to the toilet and some confusion about which toothbrush to use later, Lily made her way to James's bed. Of course, she wouldn't have been able to sleep even if that was what she wanted. She wasn't used to this body. She didn't know how to make it sleep. At least it was so dark that she could no longer tell how bad her vision was. Speaking of which - she removed her glasses. Best not forget about those.

Even though it was her idea not to tell anyone, and she definitely knew it was the best way to find the culprit, she hadn't stopped to wonder how it would feel lying to friends. It was harder than she expected not to just roll over and wake the boys up and tell them.

_But wait, what if it was one of them who switched us?_

She could definitely believe it of them. If it was Sirius . . . oh, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing it had worked. She was going to act her ass off.

She went over that brief interaction with Sirius in her mind, analysing it word-for-word, hitting herself for any small slip-ups she may have made. While it was true that Sirius probably wouldn't remember any of it, Lily had to make sure she sounded like James at all times. _Prongs? _he had said. _Where the hell . . ._

She actually slapped herself on the forehead. She had called him Sirius! James hadn't done that once in the entire time she and he had gone out! _Padfoot, Padfoot, Padfoot_, she recited to herself. _And the others . . . Moony, Wormtail. Moony, Wormtail._

She was still reciting the names in her mind when she finally drifted off; her dreams were a tangled mess of her thoughts and a few she was positive didn't belong to her. When she drowsily woke up in the morning, it felt as if she had unlocked some dark section of James's brain that had long been closed off. How she had accessed it, she didn't know.

It was almost like a memory . . . was it _possible_ for her to see into James's memory in this situation?

In the safety of the four-poster, Lily screwed up her eyes and tried to pinpoint this feeling.

_The feeling of a wand twirling between her fingers . . ._

_Heart racing in excitement, disbelief . . . happiness beyond her wildest dreams . . ._

_And words, issuing out of her mouth of their own accord: "It's real. It's real. Lily actually said yes this time! I don't know what changed – is it because I'm Head Boy now, she sees I can be responsible? Whatever, I don't even care!"_

She knew right away that these were real memories, not remnants of dreams. And the thought deeply unnerved her. No amount of Polyjuice Potion could have allowed her to witness another's memories; even a Pensieve wouldn't let her experience James's emotions in this way. Whoever had orchestrated this entire ordeal couldn't have known such a thing would happen, and she, Lily, had never even heard of such a thing being possible.

Suddenly, she felt sick with guilt. That was something she should never have felt, a privacy she had invaded worse than if she had made any number of sexual advances on James's body. Apart from the general wrongness of it all, they were broken up now. Her feeling any old love from James's perspective was horribly inappropriate and not at all what she needed right now. It was hard enough doing what she had to do. She had to forget that m

emory, ignore it completely.

Pulling aside the curtains of her four-poster, Lily climbed out of the bed, aware that nobody else in this dormitory had so much as budged from theirs. Once again, she almost forgot about her glasses. Then, after a brief moment's hesitation at the thought of what was to come, she shuffled her too-large feet to the showers.

They found each other in the hallway outside the Common Room without difficulty, even if it was about an hour earlier than James's usual getting up time (which wasn't saying much), and neither looked more than a little worse for wear, all things considered.

As they walked, they discussed in hushed whispers the logistics of what they had to do. Classes were a huge point – the bag Lily was carrying was exceptionally heavy because, not remembering which subjects James would have today, she had packed every book she could find – as was interaction with others. It pained James to accept that he might actually have to go out of his way to avoid detention.

Lily admitted her blunder when talking to Sirius the night before, but James wasn't too worried. A little name indiscretion was the least of his worries about what might come out during private conversations with the Marauders. _That_ was one delicate area that James had felt still ought not to be shared, even after six months of blissful love.

Doing things properly, they decided to write down for each other all the information that would be necessary for them to keep up the charade. James grimaced as he finished scribbling out his timetable. Lily's petite hands didn't complement his handwriting very well, so many of the letters appeared very jagged. "Here," he said, handing it over. "We'd better eat quickly. McGonagall will kill me if it looks like I've missed another Transfiguration class."

The paper in hand, Lily turned ash-grey in the face and stopped moving. It looked as though James Potter was about to throw up.

"What?" the real James said irritably. She couldn't have possibly found his handwriting _that_ repulsive.

"You do Arithmancy," Lily responded, voice filled with dread.

"Yeah . . . "

"I can't do Arithmancy."

James processed this, attempting to find a problem different from that with any of their other subjects. They each had their strengths and weaknesses: James wasn't as good as Lily at Potions or Charms, and Lily wasn't as good at Transfiguration or History of Magic. He had already accepted that this was one of those inconveniences they would have to deal with, one of those minor problems that would certainly impact them, but hopefully only to a minor degree. As long as they didn't have to do one another's exams, all they would have to do would be take notes for one another and recount the more difficult parts of the classes. This close to exams, however, most classes were unlikely to be doing much more than revision. It wasn't as though Arithmancy forced Lily to do unfamiliar magic in front of a whole roomful of people, and if she played her cards right, she could imitate James's uncaring attitude in such a way that meant she wouldn't have to do any actual work at all.

"Okay," James said slowly. "You just pretend you can."

Lily shook her head vigorously, hazel eyes wide with horror. "No, no, you don't understand. I _can't._ It's just not part of my genetic make-up to be able to function properly with numbers in front of me."

"I get it, but if you just hold it together and make a few notes for me - "

_"I don't do numbers, Potter!" _she shrieked. A portrait on the wall of Sombrius the Silent raised his eyebrows in bewilderment, but said nothing. Alarmed that someone else would hear _his_ voice go into a panicked soprano, James hurriedly attempted to calm Lily down. Six months together, and he'd never seen her confronted with numeracy. She had even been confused enough to revert back to calling him Potter.

"Okay!" he hissed. "Stop it, stop it now. Just don't turn up. I know it all, anyway . . . You can't do this with everything, though. Under no circumstances can you skip Quidditch."

"Quidditch?"

Of course, there was more to being one another than classes and sleeping arrangements. Evidently Lily wasn't thinking one step ahead, and was just taking events as they came. It was most unlike her, James thought, but then he knew already that he was adapting better to this situation than she was. It was fair enough that she wasn't exactly strategising. He, on the other hand, had already figured out the best way to cover all his bases; unfortunately, some of them weren't going to be easy. He hadn't expected Arithmancy to be such an obstacle, so he wondered just how many more surprises were lurking in the near future for him. Quidditch had potential to be very problematic, but it also could have been a lot worse. There was only one match left, and it was against Ravenclaw, whose Keeper seemed to have a cold no matter how much Pepper-up Potion he took. The other two Gryffindor Chasers were good. Even without James, they could manage.

"I hadn't thought about that," Lily admitted, calm again now. The colour of her face began to return to normal. They began walking again, at a quick pace, until they made their way into the Great Hall and to their seats.

"Well, we can't miss the Grand Final. You'll be fine. What do you think of a strategy that involves - ?"

He was interrupted by a loud, "Make way!" as Sirius leapt onto the seat beside Lily, momentum carrying him so that he flew up to the table, narrowly avoiding a platter of fried eggs. Remus and Peter were walking drearily towards the table behind him, looking pained at the thought of being that active at this time of morning. Up at the teachers' table, Professor McGonagall glowered at the unsuspecting (well, maybe) Sirius.

"Morning, you two," Sirius said brightly, hopping down and settling into his seat. "Prongs, can you imagine my horror when I woke up at eight thirty and saw that you had already left? It was sacrilege, I tell you."

He was looking straight at Lily as he spoke, so there was no mistaking whom he was scolding. Lily was prepared enough for this, though. "Sorry," she said casually, abandoning James' timetable and beginning to get herself some breakfast. "I know you usually want me there to hold your hand while you shower, but I thought you should give it a try on your own at least once."

James cocked an eyebrow; it was definitely a very Lily-ish sort of insult, but the others probably wouldn't pick up on it. At least she hadn't sincerely apologised or anything silly like that. Sirius pretended to look hurt and huffed, "So, the deer bares its antlers."

"At least he has a pair," James responded smoothly. Sirius blinked.

"Prongs, you've been teaching her. I don't like it."

Breakfast went on for the remaining minutes without incident; Lily didn't slip up on her 'Padfoot's and her 'Wormtail's, and James made sure to look bewildered when Remus mentioned his 'furry little problem'. Luckily James and Lily had been so close during the last six months that any apparent similarities in the way they spoke was put down to them picking up each other's bad habits. They, along with the other three Marauders, ended up running five minutes late for Transfiguration, causing Professor McGonagall to deduct five points from Gryffindor each, but it left them feeling a lot more relaxed about being able to plausibly act like each other. Even their best friends couldn't tell.

In the class, everyone was put into pairs in order to transform magpies into mushrooms, putting the two of them together. Apparently Professor McGonagall thought Lily was a good influence on James's behaviour, and didn't object when they stood beside one another, the way she always did when James stood next to Sirius. The spell they were practising was non-verbal, so the class was in total silence apart from the occasional magpie cry, or the giggles that arose whenever somebody got the spell wrong.

This made Lily very visibly agitated; Transfiguration wasn't her forte, and occasionally she muttered insults at her magpie under her breath. "Stupid . . . Never did like birds . . . Where'd we get these pigeons, anyway? . . . "

"Not your best work, Potter," Professor McGonagall said as she circled the classroom, keeping them all in order. It was an understatement: Lily's magpie looked no more fungal than her face. Then, Professor McGonagall rounded on James. "And you still need some extra work, Miss Evans."

James looked at his work in surprise. He thought he had done the spell perfectly - but then he noticed his mushroom still had legs.

"That can't be right!" he said, aghast.

"You're certainly right about _that_, Miss Evans. Keep practising; it shouldn't take many more attempts." Professor McGonagall reversed the spell, bringing the ruffled-looking magpie back into existence, ready for another try. After she had turned her back, James looked at Lily in alarm.

"What is this? Why can't I do Transfiguration any more?"

"I'd hardly go that far," Lily said, scowling.

James ignored her. "I never screw up non-verbal Transfiguration spells! My wand movement's too good!"

"Well, maybe it's only good with _your_ wand, rather than mine," Lily said sarcastically. James, on the other hand, froze.

He was using Lily's wand; it had seemed only natural that her wand would continue responding to her body, just like the Gryffindor staircase. But now it occurred to him that his assumption may have been wrong. Maybe, somehow, his own wand would recognise him.

He held out his left hand open-palmed, and used his right to toss Lily's wand toward her. She fumbled to catch it, earning a snicker from Sirius a few feet away. James eagerly grabbed his own wand out of her grasp, then turned back on his mushroom-magpie hybrid. Just to be safe, he whispered the incantation under his breath rather than relying solely on his wand movement, confident though he felt with it back in his grasp. It didn't feel quite right in Lily's hand rather than his own, but it was still familiar.

"Oh, wow, you actually thought that would help."

His own voice's sarcastic drawl was really quite annoying, he realised suddenly. Besides, Lily had no right to comment: switching wands _had_ helped . . . marginally. There were no legs left this time, and it was just the general shape that was off.

"It's your body," he accused Lily. "Something's wrong with it, making my magic go haywire."

"_What?_"

"It's like . . . like 'the wand chooses the wizard' and all that, so my wand still recognises me, but it's my _body_ that really does the work. Like – "

"Like your magic's in your blood, rather than your mind?" Lily finished for him. He nodded, bewildered. "Well, having magic is a real thing, not just a psychological state, so I imagine it would be part of your blood. But what on earth does that mean for us?"

James groaned. "It means we're screwed. I can't do Transfiguration as well any more because your body can't, and you can't do it because you and your wand aren't as good at it. We've got all the disadvantages of this, and none of the advantages."

He was dramatising, he knew: their work wasn't bad, by any means, but just bad enough to be inconvenient and a dead give-away for anyone who knew them. Not only that, but the lack of his own magic felt painfully debilitating, like he was really vulnerable now. What if someone attacked him and he couldn't defend himself properly?

Then Sirius flew his mushroom into Professor McGonagall's head and the room became chaotic.

When class was over and Lily and James left feeling extremely confused about their magic, Lily posed a strange question. "So, James, did you have any weird dreams?"

"Dreams? No, I never remember my dreams," he answered, bemused. Lily didn't look like she knew if that was the answer she wanted. "Why?"

"No reason. I just did, and I wondered . . . if it was a side effect or something. Nothing to worry about."

James's next class was Arithmancy, which Lily was promptly going to skip, while James himself headed outside to Lily's Herbology class. As he moved through the crowded halls, he found himself watching other girls and trying to imitate how they walked. It felt stupid and unnatural, but then everything about this felt unnatural.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he glanced over, expecting one of Lily's friends. Instead he saw someone he didn't recognise: a boy, probably in fourth or fifth year, though he towered over James as he was.

James almost said, "Who're you?" before stopping himself; if Lily knew this guy, that might give the game away. Instead he just said, "Yes?"

The boy didn't say anything, just walked alongside him all the way outside. He stood uncomfortably close and it was driving James mad with questions that he couldn't ask – _who the hell is this guy? How does he know Lily? Why hasn't Lily told me about him? Why doesn't he back off a bit?_

"You're awfully stiff, Lily," the boy commented eventually. James quickly tried to relax his posture: if this was some friend of Lily's, he didn't want to appear uncomfortable around him. Though this encounter was making him extremely suspicious, and shaking that feeling was not easy.

"Is there something you wanted?" James asked. He tried to keep his voice polite, but with an edge of warning to it. _Don't try anything. _

The boy's expression turned serious. "I wanted to know if that thing we were talking about happened."

James swallowed. "If it happened?"

"Did you do it or not?"

James desperately wanted a few minutes of total silence so that he could try to work out what was going on, but he didn't have that. The boy wanted an answer, and everything about his demeanour told James that this was not a casual conversation. This kid meant business. Normally James would've been more than happy to take him, but he didn't want to ruin Lily's reputation – plus, his magic might not have worked.

Instead, he didn't have a choice but to answer as quickly and vaguely as possible. "As far as I know, it happened."

Not good enough, apparently. Now that they had walked far enough that there weren't really other students around, the boy grabbed James by the shoulders and shoved him against a wall. In Lily's petite body, this hurt a lot more than usual.

"Hey! You know I'm Head B- " James corrected himself just in time. "_Girl_, right? Back off!"

The boy wasn't intimidated. "Did you do it or not?" he snarled.

"I'll rip you in – "

He loosened his grip on James for a second, only to push him against the wall harder. This time it caught James right in the back of the head and he saw stars.

"One more time, Evans. Did you, or did you not, do what you were supposed to do?"

Dazed, James was barely aware of saying, "Yeah . . . yeah, I did it."

He felt himself get dropped. Sliding to the floor, he blinked over and over again until his vision stopped swimming. He was full of rage, for himself and for Lily – how _dare _someone do this to her? He was going to kill this guy.

But the boy was long gone by the time James could make himself stand up. Lily's body was in shock; in the back of his mind, he realised this was a good thing, as it probably meant she wasn't accustomed to rough treatment. Maybe this was the first time this had happened. In fact, he was sure of it: he definitely would have noticed if someone had beaten her up before.

"_Believe it or not, James, some people don't like me any more than you like the Slytherins."_

James remembered Lily's words from last night with startling clarity. Was this what she meant? Did she think this guy was responsible for their body swap?

What exactly was she keeping from him, and how long had she been keeping secrets?

From where he was, James could see the entrance to the Herbology greenhouses. Weighing up the situation, he turned around and hobbled back in the direction of the rest of the school, intent on finding Lily in their Common Room and demanding to know what she knew. Hopefully she'd forgive him for skipping her class.


End file.
